Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies
over their minds; 16 but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is
removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his
likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit. 1 Therefore, having this ministry by
the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 We have renounced
disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to
tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we
would commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of
God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those
who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of
God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as
Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For it is
the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ.

One more pressing topical message before I return to the
exposition of Romans 7 next week, Lord willing. At least four
things precipitate this message.

First is the coming of summer with its golden outdoor
opportunities for seeing and showing Christ to those who don't
trust him or treasure him, and especially the planned "Behold
Your God" evangelistic campaign of Jews for Jesus coming in
August.

Second is the visit of the Dalai Lama recently to the
Twin Cities and the way some of the mainline clergy responded to
him as the leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

Third is the arrival last week of the book we would
like to give you this morning, Seeing and Savoring Jesus
Christ, and how it relates to these other two events.

Fourth is the message of 2 Corinthians 3:17 to 4:6:
that seeing and believing and treasuring the historical, crucified,
risen, and living Jesus Christ is the way to be transformed into
his image and bear fruit for God.

Summer Is for Seeing and Showing Christ

Bethlehem has always seen summer as uniquely designed by God in
Minnesota for more personal evangelism than we may do in the winter
when we all hide away in our igloos because of the cold. We are
outside with people in the yard and on the streets and in the
parks. So we try to go outside with some of our services on Sunday
and Wednesday. And we do backyard Bible clubs, sports camps, etc.
And this summer, Jews for Jesus is bringing their "Behold Your
God" campaign to Minneapolis (and 60 other cities in the world
with the largest population of Jewish people) in August, and will
be on the streets and on the phones with the message that Jesus
Christ is the hope of Israel and all other peoples.

The Controversy Upon Us

Now this is highly controversial in the pluralistic atmosphere
of progressive Minneapolis. For example, when Bethlehem hosted the
"Jewish Evangelism Seminar" back in March in preparation for the
"Behold Your God" campaign we received a letter of protest
and warning signed by the senior ministers of the nine large
Protestant and Catholic churches near downtown Minneapolis. The
protest went like this: "We feel that efforts by Christians to
convert Jews are counter-productive, injurious to Christian-Jewish
relations, and contrary to the true spirit of Christ" (letter dated
03-9-01).

In an earlier letter from some of the same group, the point was
made even more forcefully: "Unfortunately, 'arrogant' is the right
word to describe any attempts at proselytizing – in this case
the effort of Christians to 'win over' their Jewish brothers and
sisters. Thoughtful Christians will disassociate themselves from
any such effort" (letter dated 10-12-99).

To dissuade us from participating in the Jews for Jesus
campaign, or from any Jewish evangelism at all, a warning was added
in the recent letter from these nine downtown churches: "In the
event of a city-wide conversion campaign, please know that we will
respectfully but forcefully make public our concerns in every way
available to us. Obviously dialogue before that time would be
invaluable in maintaining the peace of the church and strength of
our shared mission."

I have attended the Sunday morning worship service of the
minister who drafted that letter, and I have taken him to lunch.
Following that I met for breakfast with one of the most influential
Rabbis in the city. Well, what is behind this protest and this
warning? Rather than going into details about those personal
conversations, let me clarify by referring to the coming of the
Dalai Lama and how some clergy and churches responded.

The Clergy Response to the Dalai Lama

I think the gathering of seven local clergy with the Dalai Lama
at Northrop Auditorium exemplified the worldview behind these
letters (see summary article in the StarTribune, 05-19-01,
p. V9). The Dalai Lama is "the spiritual . . . leader of 6 million
Tibetans, who believe him to be the 14th earthly incarnation of the
heavenly deity of compassion and mercy" (05-19-01,
http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/ND97/thurman.html).
He said, "All religions have the same potential to serve humanity.
. . . All religions carry the same teaching, same goal, same
potential." This is the basic attitude of pluralism in Minneapolis
today, even among many mainline Protestant and Catholic clergy.
Since all religions are that similar and have the same goal and
potential, it is arrogant of any one of these religions to mount a
campaign to convert people from other religions.

Specifically it is arrogant – and offensive – to
present Jesus Christ to Jewish people with the hope and prayer that
they would see him as their Messiah (which is what "Christ" means)
and believe on him for the forgiveness of their sins and for the
hope of eternal life. This was made very clear to me by the Rabbi.
God saves Jewish people without Jesus, and he saves Christian
people through Jesus. God has multiple covenants with multiple
religions.

The Effort to Sever Love from Truth

One thing is common to the pluralistic message of Buddhism and
Judaism and the letters we have received, namely, the effort to
sever the fruit of love from the root of truth. Or to be more
specific: the effort to build unity around a social agenda of good
works with no necessary connection to Jesus Christ as the only
Savior and Lord. In other words, Christians are welcome at the
table of interfaith dialogue if they abandon the historic Christian
faith that "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved"
(Acts 4:12). But if this is what we believe, we are not welcome,
because this, they say, is not dialogue but proselytism, and it is
arrogant.

Thus one of the Muslim Imam at the Northrop gathering said,
"Converting people to one religion or another should not be our
main objective . . . Our goal, should be to make the world a better
place by using our various religions to improve the world so that
God will be pleased with us." In other words, we should abandon any
convictions that there is a necessary connection between Jesus
Christ and the forgiveness of sins and the transformation of
sinners. That forgiveness (if it were necessary) and that
transformation are possible in all religions. The fruit of
reconciliation with God and man and the root of Christ's
person and work are severed. That is the essence of the matter. We
are not welcome to the table if we bring the conviction that all
people of every religion must trust in Jesus alone for the
forgiveness of their sins and the hope of eternal life.

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

Now what does this have to do with the new book and with 2
Corinthians 3 and 4? The book is called Seeing and Savoring
Jesus Christ. It's the first book I have written specifically
about Jesus. And I wrote it with both believers and unbelievers in
mind. It is made up of 13 very short chapters (about seven pages
each).

The Ultimate Aim of Jesus Christ

The Deity of Jesus Christ

The Excellence of Jesus Christ

The Gladness of Jesus Christ

The Power of Jesus Christ

The Wisdom of Jesus Christ

The Desecration of Jesus Christ

The Anguish of Jesus Christ

The Saving Sacrifice of Jesus Christ

The Mercies of Jesus Christ

The Severity of Jesus Christ

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

Essentially it is an effort to give a faithful, biblical
portrait of Jesus so that believers and unbelievers can look at it.
Behind this approach is my conviction that people come to
authentic, well-grounded faith not primarily by long, involved,
historical arguments for the reliability of the Bible (though these
are very important; see p. 131, note 3 in the book), but by the
compelling power of the glory of Jesus Christ as he vindicates his
own person and work set forth in the Bible. My prayer is that God
will take this little, Bible-saturated book –
this small
portrait of who Jesus is and what he did – and use it to open
the eyes of many to see and savor Jesus Christ.

Four Ways to Respond to Those Who Reject Jesus as the Only
Way

How should we respond to Jewish people and Muslims and Buddhists
and liberal Protestants and Catholics who do not embrace the Jesus
of the Bible as the unique and only way to God?

We should respond in five ways:

First, we renounce all violence. True Christians, in
spite of much deplorable Christian history, do not take up the
sword to spread or to defend their faith in Jesus Christ. We
repudiate all hate crimes and all mean-spirited attitudes toward
other faiths.

Second, we honor all human beings as created in God's
image. That is why we believe in persuasion with words, not
coercion with force. Animals may be beaten into submission, but not
human beings created in God's image. We write, we speak, we plead.
As Paul said, "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Third, we love our friends and our enemies by longing and
working for their eternal good – and being willing to suffer
for it. We know that we are sinners saved by the grace of God
in Christ. But we do not believe it is arrogant to offer salvation
by presenting Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness
of sins.

Fourth, we will therefore do all in our power to present
Jesus – not the word "Jesus" filled up with Buddhist or
Muslim or liberal protestant or Catholic ideas – but the
biblical Jesus Christ. We will present him in conversations and
letters and sermons and tracts and books. This is where I hope the
book will be helpful. I hope that you will be able to use it in
personal evangelism. Give it to people who are willing to consider
Christ. Study it over lunch with colleagues. (You can read a
chapter in 15 minutes.)

Fifth, we will pray that God do what Paul says he will do
in 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:6, that is, cause the light of the glory of
Christ to be seen compellingly in the presentation of Christ in the
gospel. (See the Olive Tree Project of Jews for Jesus.)

Becoming Like Christ by Beholding the Beauty of Christ

Look briefly with me at the text. This text is one of the most
important in the Bible in shaping how I understand both personal
sanctification and personal evangelism. 2 Corinthians 3:18 relates
directly to your sanctification. "And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his
likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit." We are changed by beholding the glory
of the Lord and standing in awe of him, savoring him. That is the
first reason I wrote this book: to help believers "behold the glory
of the Lord" and so be changed into his image.

But then consider how 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 relates to our
personal evangelism this summer. "And even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled only to those who are perishing. (4) In their case the
god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep
them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the likeness of God." Well, if Satan is blinding the minds
of people from seeing the glory of Christ in the gospel, what
should we do?

Give up and go home, and surrender people to darkness? No. We
should do two things over and over again: hold up a testimony to
the true biblical Christ for them to see (as verse 5 says) –
conversations, tracts, sermons, tapes, books, etc. – and then
pray that verse 6 would happen by the power of the Holy Spirit: "It
is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has
shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ.'" In other words, the same power that
created light in the first place gives light to the dark human
heart now so that Christ is seen for who he really is. That is how
you became a Christian. That is how those you love will become
Christians. You give them a faithful portrait of Jesus, and God
gives them eyes to see.

Don't make a mistake here when you think about how people come
to believe in the Jesus of the Bible. I am not saying that God
whispers in our ear that the Bible is true. It is rather God's
enabling us to see what is really there in this portrait of Jesus.
This is an important difference. If God whispered in our ear, as it
were, that the Jesus of the Bible is true, then the whispering
would have the final authority and everything would hang on that.
But that is not the path I see in the Bible nor the path I follow.
Rather Jesus himself, and his divinely inspired portrayal in the
Bible, have the final authority.

Don’t Ask for a Whisper, Look at Jesus

The practical effect of this path is that I do not ask you to
pray, nor encourage anyone else to pray, for a special whisper from
God to decide if Jesus is real. Rather I ask you to look at the
Jesus of the Bible. Look at him. And pray that you will see the
self-authenticating glory that is really there. Don't close your
eyes and hope for a word of confirmation. Keep your eyes open and
fill them with the full portrait of Jesus provided in the Bible. If
anyone comes to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and God, it will be
because he or she sees in him a divine glory and excellence that
simply is what it is – true.

Therefore, what I have tried to do in this book is put the
biblical portrait of Jesus on display. The Bible itself is the only
authoritative description of Jesus Christ. That is why I have
saturated these short chapters with Scripture.

I invite you to join me in this serious quest for well-founded,
everlasting, love-producing joy in Jesus Christ. And that you do
all in your power to present this Jesus to as many people as you
can – to Jewish people and to every other religion or
non-religion. Everything is at stake. There is no more important
issue in life than seeing Jesus for who he really is, and savoring
what we see above all else.